• Children from independent schools are almost ten times as likely to gain five A* grades at GCSE. 20% of private school pupils gain perfect scores in national tests compared to 2% at comprehensives. Telegraph
• 
  
• Head master of Eton, Tony Little, has called upon the next government to bring back assisted places and consider setting up boarding schools academies. He said good boarding schools were the answer to concerns about the broken society as they give pupils structure and self-discipline. Guardian
• 
  
• Leaked documents show that nine staff from a boys academy whose staff are facing compulsory redundancy spent more than £4,000 of public money on a 'team building exercise' which included fine food and taxi transport at a boutique hotel costing £339 a night. Guardian
• 
  
• In an education-themed version of the Daily Politics programme, the three education ministers put forward their promises one last time - Balls to raise the schools budget by more than inflation every year. Gove acknowledged the failings of the previous Tory administration, but said that Labour had wasted money. BBC
• 
  
• In 1998, 15% of pupils at Kingsdale school left with five good GCSEs, now the figure is 70%. Kingsdale is also the beneficiary of a £30 million architectural project which left it with an atrium the size of two football pitches - a vast internal space comparable with the British museum's Great Court. Other schools have fared similarly. Telegraph
• 
  
• There has been a mass revolt at Uppingham school following the expulsion of seven sixth formers for bullying. Pupils massed on playing fields, smoking and drinking to demand the headmaster, who later commented that he respected the pupils' need to express their feelings. Mail

• Academics at four universities and 11 further education colleges will walk out today over funding cuts - universities of Sussex, Westminster and London are affected. Universities have been asked to make savings of £1 billion and further education of £340 million in the next academic year. Times


• The race to be Oxford Professor of Poetry shifts onto facebook. Times

• The charity CSV's Volunteers in Child Protection programme (VICP) matches volunteers to families - most of whom have at least one child on the child protection register. There have been staggering results -Cliff tells his story. Guardian
• 
  
• The Mail finds that families in the UK are struggling with increased bills due to inflation which is twice as high as in other European countries. The annual energy inflation rate in Britain is 8.5% this year to March; in Germany it was 4% and Italy 0.6% Mail
• 
  
• A study has found that people getting under six hours sleep over a period of 25 years were 12% more likely to experience a premature death than those getting six to eight hours sleep. Guardian
• 
  
• A Canadian study finds that higher levels of TV viewing at age two link to a lower level of engagement in the classroom and poor achievement in maths at age 10. Longer viewing was also associated with decreased physical activity and a higher BMI and consumption of soft drinks. BBC


• A study finds that children will eat twice as much fruit when it is presented in a fun way. The researchers suggest supermarkets should make fruit more appealing using attractive packaging and perhaps adding a toy, like those received with Happy Meals. BBC


• Mentions of poverty and inequality by the Conservatives far outstrip those in Labour's manifesto - how will the Conservative belief that the solutions to poverty lie in family breakdown, welfare dependency and bad schooling rather than income redistribution come to bear on those so-called poor? Guardian

back to top